ASSAULT ON PARADISE

by Tatiana Lobo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1998

This raucous picaresque by a Chilean-born Costa Rican novelist won the 1995 Sor Juana Inƒs de la Cruz Prize for Fiction. It's a historical novel, set in 18th-century Europe, the West Indies, and Central America, concerning the adventures, amours, and disillusionments experienced by Pedro AIbar‡n--a refugee from Spain's Inquisition laboring incognito among a Catholic order of peculiarly venal monks who share with the notorious Conquistadors the guilt for corrupting the Mayan culture (of Guatemala) they ostensibly ""save"" from primitivism. Though her Indian characters seem impossibly noble, Lobo creates arresting secondary characters, delineates Pedro's ""education"" with scorching irony, and brings her crowded story to a stunning, chilling conclusion.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998

ISBN: 1880684462

Page Count: 298

Publisher: Curbstone

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998

Categories: FICTION